Almost all prisoners in Russian colonies are driven to meetings with a businessman.
The owner of the private military company “Liga” (formerly PMC Wagner) Yevgeny Prigozhin personally recruits prisoners in Russian colonies to participate in the war against Ukraine. He offered potential militants monetary rewards and pardons.
Several prisoners told reporters about this “media areas“.
Journalists talked to two prisoners of two different Russian colonies – VK-4 in the Tula region and VK-2 in the Yaroslavl region. The prisoners do not know each other, they are serving their sentences in different colonies on the territory of different Russian regions, but both were participants in meetings with Prigozhin.
According to the men, Prigozhin boasted that he was personally endowed with special powers by Russian President Vladimir Putin. In addition, the leader of the “Wagnerites” allegedly openly said that he needed to “win this damn war at any cost.”
“I have special powers from the president, I don’t give a fuck about everyone, I need to win this damn war at any cost,” a prisoner from the Tula colony quotes Prigozhin.
A prisoner from the Yaroslavl region noted that almost all the “settlers” of the colony were driven to a meeting with Prigozhin. The man with the star of the hero of the Russian Federation introduced himself as Yevgeny Prigozhin. He arrived accompanied by several armed men.
“We are not armed forces, but a real paramilitary organized crime group. My guys enter African countries – and in two days they do not leave anything alive there, and now they are also destroying enemies in Ukraine. Your decision to serve in PMCs is a deal with the devil. If you will leave here with me – either return a free man, or die. You will be obliged to kill enemies and follow the orders of the leadership. Those who turn back will be shot on the spot, “the prisoner quotes Prigozhin.
In addition, the man said that Prigozhin admitted to the “experimental” use of prisoners in the war against Ukraine. According to him, out of 42 allegedly only five returned to the Russian Federation “two hundred”. In general, Prigozhin estimated the probability of death of prisoners at 15%, and also noted their “heroism”.
“He says they fought like lions, attacked with some knives on some opnik and massacred everyone there,” the prisoner recalled.
One of the prisoners also told who exactly Prigozhin was looking for in the Russian colonies.
“First of all, they are interested in murderers and robbers, they are wary of drug addicts, the same is true of rapists. It’s better, he says, that there are not domestic killers, but straight conscious ones – you, he says, will like it with us. In general, he gave the impression of a maniac. No coercion in the meantime, no. You, he says, should understand for yourself what we need. And indeed, many, many, no less than 200 people went to sign up,” the prisoner noted.
